How Do You Know A Food Is Ultra Processed?

Someone asked a great question - How do you know a food is ultra processed?

There is a food classification system called NOVA. There are 4 groups of food within NOVA, and NOVA 4 is considered ultra processed.

Group One - unprocessed or minimally processed foods (fruit, veggies, milk, eggs, meat, ect)

Group Two - processed culinary ingredients (fats, herbs, sugars, ect)

Group Three - processed foods made my combining items from group one and two. These are foods that have minimal ingredients and are natural (homemade breads, natural jams, bottled vegetables, canned fish, ect).

Group Four - ultra processed foods - foods that either no longer resemble their original form (candy, soda, ect) and/or have many ingredients with additives that improve palatability, hydrogenated fats (margarine, fried foods, ect), modified starches, ect. These foods are industrial, are rarely cooked with (think mechanically separated meat here....) and have low cost, high taste, and long shelf-life as it's main goal.

There is a website where you can search a product and see the NOVA rating.

https://world.openfoodfacts.org/

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